Sawt Falasteen - Bulgaria ski resort, once buzzing, creaks under crumbling infrastructure

But the once-modern resort is now a far cry from its former glory -- and with its crumbling infrastructure is unlikely to again produce talented ski champions like Popov, said local ski club founder Ivaylo Rangelov.

"Bulgaria's first chair lift was built here," said Rangelov, pointing to the now rusted poles and cables from the decaying lifts in the European Union's poorest country.

"My father learned to ski here, then it was my turn, and after that three generations of children in Sofia, including Abi," said the 57-year-old former special forces officer, referring to Popov's nickname.

The walls of Vitosha's main mountain hut are adorned with Popov's race jerseys displaying his starting numbers.

- Sole chair lift -

Prized for its proximity to the capital, Vitosha, located in the oldest nature park in the Balkans, once featured more than a dozen cable cars and chair lifts.

The resort applied during the 1980s to host the 1992 Winter Olympics, but lost out to Albertville in France.

After the fall of communism in 1989, the resort's infrastructure was gradually privatised.

Over the years, one lift after another closed, even as Bulgaria's biggest ski station, Bansko in the southwest, kept growing.

The Vitosha resort, whose highest peak is 2,290 metres (7,510 feet), is also burdened by the costly production of artificial snow necessitated by global warming.

These days, it has just one operating chair lift with two sections, while most of the chalets and other accommodations on the mountain have been transformed into luxurious private residences owned by oligarchs.

Still, on a sunny day in March, around a hundred children from Sofia were learning how to ski on the slopes of the mountain.

But "once children learn to stand on skis and make their first swings, there is nowhere they can continue to learn," said Rangelov, whose 25-year-old club has produced several winter sports champions.

- 'Priceless mountain' -

Popov, who claimed his first World Cup win in the slalom at Italy's Madonna di Campiglio in January, said he hoped that children, enthusiasts and athletes alike "can all do sports on Vitosha again".

"We deserve to have this priceless mountain returned to us in all its splendour," the 27-year-old told Bulgarian media in 2023.

Neither he nor the resort operator returned an AFP interview request.

Sofia's Mayor Vassil Terziev has made improving access to Vitosha mountain a "top priority", expressing his "anguish" about the lost opportunities to train future champions there.

"We want to give (the mountain) back to the people," he said after he was elected in 2023, though he has admitted it is a "difficult task".

After a cable car line that ran straight from a Sofia neighbourhood to the ski resort stopped operating in May 2024, Terziev increased bus services.

Parking space on the mountain is limited with cars and buses jostling for space.

Amid those waiting patiently for the bus at Vitosha, a French couple said they came to the resort to "share the habits" of Sofia inhabitants.

"For the people of Sofia, Vitosha is a bit like the sea is for the people of Marseille," retiree Francois Trebosc told AFP.

K.AbuTaha--SF-PST